Secret diary of a civil servant: Here comes the Tesco Value state

Writing anonymously, a senior Whitehall insider this week describes how the debate about private and public sector services is fast becoming an irrelevance. The real issue is now, in the brave new world, whether we will have any services at all

'There is one big government strategy that is bearing fruit. The vilification of public sector workers has been a huge success.' Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Saturday 17 July 2010 19.05 EDT
First published on Saturday 17 July 2010 19.05 EDT

Can it be possible that the big idea underpinning this government is just code for not doing very much at all? Now that the honeymoon is over we are being pressed to explain policies in more detail. There is a lot of talk in high places about personal responsibility and the big society but increasing concern that there is no detail behind the talk. On some of the hardest issues the answer is too often that government won't dictate, won't have a role, will no longer regulate and won't tell people what to do. Is this the most over-hyped delegation note in history?

There is intense discussion about why the state needs to shrink but no clear plan for who takes up the slack. Ministers are proposing a much larger role for voluntary groups and charities. But this is a fantasy. With every passing day comes news that more of these organisations are letting staff go, downsizing or going under. What was once a fertile landscape is now a barren plain thanks to funding cuts.

The government is asking everyone for ideas about what services we should end and how we should do things differently. Departments have been ordered to label all their planned ministerial visits as "spending challenge" visits. Plans are hastily being put together for ministers to meet real people and listen to their ideas in the hope of unearthing something more ingenious than cutting everything by 25%. These ideas, it is said, will help us to cut costs and reduce the deficit. Old templates are being dusted off, as we have done all this before; it's pure New Labour.

One impressive feat last week was the speed with which the coalition developed a serious health problem. Normally this takes a bit of time, but the NHS white paper sorted this out very efficiently within a matter of weeks, with plans to make the NHS independent and give all the money to GPs. There is anger across Whitehall that, wherever they go, ministers will face campaigns and demonstrations and have to explain why there needs to be heavy job cutting and restructuring in a health service that seemed to work quite well and where funding is protected.

There is one big government strategy that is bearing fruit. The vilification of public sector workers has been a huge success. No sooner had I warned about this in last week's column than scores of people poured out their venom on the website beneath my piece to express their view that civil servants are a useless burden on the economy. The ensuing online debate highlighted the alarming polarisation in our society between those who believe the public sector is a burden and the private sector an absolute gem, and those who believe entirely the opposite.

But we need to move on and get real. This isn't an argument about public sector services or private sector services – it is about what services you have at all. Plans are being finalised now to create a Tesco Value state with a much smaller range and the public sector will need to change rapidly to deliver it.

I pondered this puzzle as I put the phone down on yet another private sector supplier offering his services. "I am sorry," I said. "Your offer sounds wonderful but unless it's free I am not interested. All our money has gone." They are getting the same answer across government. Here at my desk was a microcosm of the British economy. The supplier will have to downsize now, they may even go bust. In time my team and I will join them on the scrapheap.